Love And War
by imalloutofusernames
Summary: All is fair in love and war...hopefully.
1. Chapter 1

**First Impressions**

But she's a...A GIRL! YUCKH! PLAKHH! "Nathaniel", the six year old boy's mother drags out the vowels in his name and ends in a melodic upward swing- a tone that he has come to know as her "3,2,1 voice." "Come here, what have I told you about being kind?" Nate looks up at the ceiling and pretends to think even though he already knows the answer because he's heard it a million times. And his mother sits back, folds her arms and pretends to wait patiently even though she _knows_ he already knows the answer because she's _said_ it a million times. He finally slumps his shoulders and gives an overly exaggerated sigh of defeat. "A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.", Nate says with a blank expression and in monotone. "Wow, what are they teaching those kids at his school," Mitchie's mom chimes in. Even though the boy's delivery was lack luster, their new next door neighbor was no less impressed. As both women continue to sip their coffees and chat excitedly about education options and early childhood retention and child rearing and all of these other unfamiliar words that go into one of Nate's ears and out of the other, he repeatedly shifts his weight from one leg to the next.

"Now," his mother refocuses her attention back on to the boy who seems as if he's about to burst if he's not soon dismissed from the conversation. "What would you like to say to Mitchie?" He turns to look at the little girl who sits in the corner of the Grays' living room. She peeks up at him from behind her bangs. To him, she seems shy and unsure; soft and fragile. He can tell that her feelings were still hurt from what he said earlier, but even still she managed to give him a small but genuine smile. Nate slowly lowers his head, brings both hands to his neck, shakes violently and pretends to choke on an invisible poisonous gas. "PLAKHH!" He then concludes his theatrical performance by collapsing on to the dark hardwood floor and laying there with his limps spread apart and his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. His mother rolls her eyes and excuses them both as she calmly takes hold of Nate's wrist and drags his "lifeless" body across the living room and down the hall to his room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Lasting Impressions**

Within the last year and a half Mitchie has become somewhat accustomed to Nate's less than enthusiastic behavior towards her. And Nate has come to grips with the fact that his new next door neighbor is not the dark ninja, super hero, warrior _boy_ that he wanted her to be. Nevertheless, tension still rides high when she comes to visit or vice versa. "Mitchie, I need you to put your drawings away. The Grays will be over soon." Her head shot up from her art work. "Not the Grays! Please. No," she pleaded. "Sweetheart they're coming for dinner, not moving in with us," Ms. Torrez replies as she continues to put away the last of the laundry. "Okay, but they can only come if they leave Nathaniel at home," Mitchie says as more of a question than an actual declaration. "I'll make a deal with you," her mom kneels down so she can look directly into her eyes, "if you promise me that you will do your best to get along with Nathaniel, I'll take you out for ice cream tomorrow after school." Hmm. Very tempting. Mitchie could practically taste the double scoop strawberry swirl cone dipped in rainbow sprinkles. But all of a sudden that taste went sour when she heard the ring of their doorbell. "Do we have a deal?" Ms. Torrez held out her hand and waited on a confirmation shake. Mitchie was only eight years old but after hearing the second ring of the doorbell, even she could fully understand that there was no turning back at this point. She would take what she could get. She sighs and whispers out,"Deal" as she shakes her mother's hand. "Great, now let's go let them in. A good hostess always greets her guests with a smile." Ms. Torrez looks down at her daughter's pained expression as they get closer to the door. She tries again. "A smirk?" Still pained. "A frown?" Nothing. "A death stare?" Mitchie was starting to catch on to her mother's silly antics and began to let out a little giggle. 

Dinner wasn't as big of a disaster as Mitchie had thought it would be. All the parents talked and all the kids ate. Occasionally when she would look up from her plate she would catch Nate balancing his spoon across the bridge of his nose or forcing his peas and carrots to attack each other or making weird faces at her. But at least dinner was over which meant it was time for the Grays to go home. "Mitchie, why don't you show Nate the drawings you've been working on," he mother called from over her shoulder as she and Mrs. Gray rinse and dry the plates. This wasn't part of the deal. Dinner means eating. Dinner doesn't mean having to play with him. Apparently their deal came with her mother's ability to read minds because Ms. Torrez raised her eyebrows at Mitchie and mouthed the words 'ice cream.' Mitchie turns to Nate who is currently banging out random notes on their piano. She grabs his hand and pulls him off the piano seat and in the direction of her room. He steadies his feet and yanks his hand away. "Hey, what do you think you're doing," he asked. His eyes narrowed as he brushes off what she assumes he thinks is cooties. "We're going to my room to play." "I don't want to go in there. You probably have a bunch of pink dolls and junk. No way," he says emphatically while folding his arms and looking away. "There is no such thing as a pink doll. That's stupid," she says. "No, you're stupid and I'm still not going in there. If I go into your girlie princess room then I'll turn into a girl," Nate says. He sit back down at the piano. "Will not." "Will too," Nate responds. "Will not!" "Will too," he continues. "Theres only one way to find out, but I can tell you're too scared so we can play out here," Mitchie says. "Scared? I'm not scared of anything!" He jumps off the piano seat and motions to her to lead the way. 

Nate is surprised to see that there wasn't much pink involved but he did stop just at the threshold of her doorway. Mitchie steps in and sits down on her hamburger bean bag chair. "Well? Are you just going to stand there," she asks with a smirk. He takes a deep breath and clings to the door frame with his right hand. He picks up his right leg and slowly sticks one foot into the room as if carefully stepping into a very hot tub of water. Mitchie watches with morbid curiosity as he clings a little tighter to the door frame and presses the side of his face to it. "What are you doing," she asks with a beyond bewildered expression. "This way...", he says with the ragged breaths of a man hanging off the ledge of a 200 ft. tall building "...if I do change into a weak girlie princess..," he continues this breathing pattern "... the other half of me will still be a boy and they will only need to find half the cure." Mitchie let out a loud giggle. "You're being silly." She stands up and pulls on his arm. "Stop it! Let me go! You don't understand. I can't stay for too long. Theres not much time! Let me go," he demands. Suddenly with one final tug they both fall to Mitchie's bedroom floor and Nate shouts, "What have you done?" He quickly scrambles to his feet and runs to the door way. He slides his hands along the air as if there is a transparent shield there. Nate stares into the air and drops to his knees. "Its too late... " He hangs his head and continues. "...The vortex. The vortex is closed. I'll never get back," he says with his back still facing Mitchie. "You're even weirder than I thought," Mitchie says. 

Nate stands up and walks around Mitchie's room, stopping occasionally to closely examine her possessions. He finally stops at her dresser. He picks up a sterling silver I.D. bracelet with letters and a symbol engraved on it, 'DT [heart] MT'. It startles Mitchie and she runs to take it out of his hand. "No, you can't touch that." "Why not, what is it," he asks. "Its my favorite bracelet. My dad gave it to me before he left," Mitchie responds. "Your dad? Where did he go?" Mitchie tucks the bracelet into her blue jewelry case. "He went to heaven." "I heard about that place. It sounds really cool! What do those letters mean?" Mitchie points to each letter and symbol as she reads aloud, "David Torrez loves Mitchie Torrez" She gives it one last look and then closes the case. Nate continues to walk around her room until he spots a dark wood acoustic guitar. He walks towards it and reaches for it. Mitchie runs to his side. "Don't touch that; its my favorite." Nate sighs. "Is there anything in this place that I _can_ touch?" She scoots him over to her easel. "Lets just paint," she says. He didn't like her tone. It reminded him of the activity lady at school. She was just trying to keep him busy and he knew it. Nate didn't like being bossed around and if thats what this girl had in mind then she had another thing coming. "Here's a brush and theres the paint," she says. "I got a better idea," Nate says, "Lets paint our faces like they do at the carnivals." Mitchie shakes her head, "No that would be messy. We would get paint everywhere." "Come on Mitch, this will be fun," he says as he dips his hand into the blue paint. "Don't call me Mitch. And no, my mom is going to be mad." Nate steps closer to her while holding his hand out, "I promise I'll just draw a small heart Mitch." She continues to back away until her back hits the wall. "My name is Mitchie! Stop it!" 

A loud shriek comes from the girl's room and both mothers run to see what the source was. There they find Mitchie lying on the floor and just above her is a perfectly formed blue hand print on her wall. She points to the boy standing leveled with the evidence. "He did it." Mrs. Gray grabs the back of the boy's collar and pulls him out of the room but not before he has the last word. "Snitch," he says as he disappears into the hallway.

-  
Thanks for the comments **Skyscraper15 :**)


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